"Mexico's opposition conservative party proposed sweeping energy reform on Wednesday to change the constitution to allow more private investment and promote competition, while the ruling party is expected to present its own plans for an overhaul next week."

"The U.S. Coast Guard and Maritime Administration will have to decide whether to grant the LNG deepwater import facility license application by Liberty Natural Gas, a five-year-old company trying again after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed their previously proposed LNG port that would have been closer to the Jersey Shore. This time, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also has a say."

"BOSTON -- The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency told an audience at Harvard Law School on Tuesday that cutting carbon pollution will 'feed the economic agenda of this country' and vowed to work with industry leaders on shaping policies aimed at curbing global warming."

"'Climate change will not be resolved overnight,' EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the 310-member audience. 'But it will be engaged over the next three years. That I can promise you.'

Some chemicals can cause cancer. But the chemical industry, unable to get the results it wants from toxicologists at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, is now trying to get them by using lawyers, lobbyists, and legislators.

"WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara Boxer will seize control of efforts to regulate industrial chemicals during what lobbyists are calling a 'mega-hearing' Wednesday that will test her ability to navigate a major environmental law through a divided Congress."

"The White House this afternoon nominated New Mexican Mike Connor, a former aide to Sen. Jeff Bingaman and current head of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, to be second in command at the U.S. Department of the Interior."

John Fleck reports for the Albuquerque Journal's N.M Science blog July 30, 2013.

"At Margaret O'Keefe's farm in East Texas, they grow high-quality Bermuda grass. The fields are flat and vibrant green, surrounded by woods of a darker, richer green. The family loves this land. O'Keefe inherited it from her mother, who divided it among eight children."

"Republican strategists have laid out an aggressive game plan for seizing the high ground on energy during the August recess: talk about gas prices and jobs, jobs, jobs."

"An EPA staff report suggests methane from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, contaminated wells near Dimock, Pa., but the agency says the water's safe to drink."

"BRUSSELS — The European Union’s trade chief said on Saturday that a deal had been reached with China to settle a dispute over exports of low-cost solar panels that had threatened to set off a wider trade war between two of the world’s largest economies."

"Two decisions handed down July 19 in DC Superior Court affirmed climate scientist Michael Mann’s right to proceed in his defamation lawsuit against the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Review Online for their statements accusing him of data manipulation and fraud. The Court is not buying the Defendants arguments in their Motion to Dismiss that their statements are protected speech under the First Amendment, mere 'opinion,' 'rhetorical hyperbole,' or 'fair comment.'"

"The White House, congressional Democrats and their allies are plotting an August recess offensive to promote President Barack Obama’s climate change plan and head off Republican opposition."

"Environmental experts who remain unimpressed with President Barack Obama's war-on-carbon rhetoric point to one key reason for concern that's off most Americans' radar: U.S. coal exports."

"WASHINGTON -- Rep. Marsha Blackburn is not a fan. The Tennessee Republican says new regulations on energy efficiency will overly burden businesses in her district."

"The U.S. program that pays farmers to idle fragile cropland soon will protect the smallest amount of land in a quarter-century, the government said on Monday, the result of several years of sky-high commodity prices that have encouraged farmers to plant as much as possible."